Fond Memories of

My Year
Teaching in Nanjing

1985-1986 was an amazing year in my life;
I was teaching American Literature
as a Fulbright Professor
at Nanjing University in Nanjing, China.
Take a look back with me at a Nanjing that has vanished .

Nanjing University is one of the ten key universities in China. Guards at the entrances checked everyone out.

This is what Nanjing University looked like back in 1985-86

Foreign Experts Compound--living quarters on left, dining hall on right, and the waiban looking after us.

Nanjing was one of the best universities,
with many foreign teachers and students who formed a community. Nanjing
is a large city with many trees and parks. My quarters were spacious.

The red star was everywhere, e.g. here on the Administration Building.

I had a lovely living room, with a computer, a balcony, my bird Ganxie,

There was a strong
community life among the foreign teachers, all of whom were working
for the Foreign Languages Department. We ate together in the Dining
Hall, roomed near each other in the Foreign Experts compound, traveled
together to Shanghai or on trips arranged by the waiban, rode
into town on our bikes to dine or shop together, took qi gong classes
together; we were fortunate there were so many of us.

Liu Haiping and Cheng Mei watch as Mr. Zhu paints a landscape of Huangshan for me. I have it on my wall still.

Deirdre West from Britain taught English and organized a choir.

Ren Rong taught me Chinese painting and calligraphy. He married a German student.

Masako taught Japanese and was my good neighbor.

My Phoenix bike transported me everywhere for a year--I sold it to a Chinese student when I left.

Close friends
--Deirdre and Lynn Conroy with whom I traveled, Jim Friend from Chicago
State (an exchange between my university an Nanjing). Second semester Alice Barter came
to take his place.

Lynn Conroy and I with Vice President Yu, Huang Zhongwen, and Zhang Boran at the Provincial Party meeting banquet.

A dinner party at the Yellow House on campus--Jim Friend is standing center, Lynn Conroy is standing left.

My job was to
teach American Literature to undergrad and grad students. Since Fullbright
professors are expected to promote American values, I took along a lot
of videos and slides to show students what America is really like. I
taught a film class both terms that was popular because American films were rare in those days, and I gave some slide lectures. I got used to
glitches--key access, language, electrical mismatch, TV system mismatch,
etc. I was grateful to have contacts or helpers.

I gave a slide lecture on Colonial America open to all students. Many came, to practice their English.

Alice Barter arrived the second semester.

My Chinese was
not sufficient to explain what I needed. English faculty member Cheng
Mei was our liaison with the waiban. We told her what we needed and
she would do what she could. I had bronchitis for months and she went
with me to the doctors to speak for me. I needed help arranging for
the film course, and Yu Nin Ping, who taught film and women's studies,
was the go-between with the projectionist for me.

Cheng Mei and Yu Nin Ping --English teachers who helped me greatly.

With graduate students in American Literature rehearsing parts in Thornton Wilder's The Matchmaker.

I
loved the students at Nanjing. Classes met only once a week ("stuffing
the duck") and they never had enough time for the huge reading
assignments I was used to giving. They were marvelous students--I would
love to hear from them again.

Undergraduates in American Lit. class.

Taping The Matchmaker at my place

Most
of my graduate students were teaching English in colleges around China.
They were eager to better their lives; many have since come to the US
and gotten advanced degrees and settled down here. I still keep in touch
with a few .

Students lived
on campus and generated their own social life out of nothing. Dancing
was popular, and at parties anyone who could play a musical instrument,
a game, or a trick was expected to perform.

Wu Andi plays and grad students sing at a Christmas party.

The Research Institute
was working on a history of Contemporary English and American Literature
in Chinese. Chen Jia, the founder, was a noted Shakespeare scholar.
Others working with him were faculty members Liu Haiping, Zhang Ziqing,
Zhang Junhuan, as well as some grad students--Tan Dali, Zhuang Guo Ou,
Fan Huaishen, Zhang Ling, and Yang Zhiyong. Chen Jia died in 199?

Cen Yefeng wires the boombox for a party.

I was happy to
discover some Catholics among the foreign teachers in Nanjing, including
a a Christian Brother teaching Spanish, and a Maryknoll priest who celebrated
Mass each Sunday and Holy Day in my living room, for our community.

The Research Institute, with Chen Jia

Toasting Christmas with wassail

Dancing in my galoshes.

Deirdre West directed us in Bach's Magnificat at Easter in a local church.

During the February
New Year break I traveled with Lynn around China--Shanghai, Guilin,
Kunming and then Guangzhou--before she went to Japan and I went to Hong
Kong and then to Taiwan. Second semester brought better health and better
weather, new faces, new classes, Easter, field day, framing my paintings,
more travel, and finally, packing to leave. My grad students helped
me with the cubic meter box I was returning with.

Zhang Xiangning and Yu Ninping came for lunch.

Our Catholic community at Nanjing, after Easter Mass

Thanks to the
students and the faculty--foreign and Chinese--with whom I shared many
precious memories. I look back on this year in China as one of the highlights
of my life. All of us were posted there together, and we relied on each
other for companionship, social life, entertainment, morale boosting.
These friends enriched my experience of China immensely.